Unlike margarine or other vegetable spreads, butter is a real, natural food. It contains beneficial saturated fats, which are essential for a healthy body, as well as a wide range of other nutrients including:

In addition, butter is a good source of iodine, in a highly absorbable form. Iodine is needed to make thyroid hormones, which help to keep cells and the metabolic rate healthy.

Fatty Acids: Many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter consists of short and medium chain fatty acid chains, which have strong anti-tumor effects. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which gives excellent protection against cancer, and aids weight loss. Research has found that CLA is found in much higher concentrations in milk and butter from grass-fed cows. [1]

Butter also contains glycosphingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the very young and the elderly.

Lecithin: Butter contains lecithin, a fat-like substance needed by every cell in the body. It protects cells from oxidation and assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.

Butter does not cause weight gain. This is because the short and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue (also known as body fat), but are instead used for quick energy. Fat tissue is composed mainly of longer chain fatty acids. [2] These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated oils as well as from refined carbohydrates.

Margarine is a man-made, processed food, created chemically from refined polyunsaturated oils. The process used to make these normally liquid oils into spread-able form is called hydrogenation.

Margarines are made by heating vegetable oils to extremely high temperatures. This insures that the oils will become rancid. After that, a nickel catalyst is added, along with hydrogen atoms, to solidify it. Nickel is a toxic heavy metal and amounts always remain in the finished product. Finally, deodorants and colorings are added to remove margarine's horrible smell (from the rancid oils) and unappetizing grey color. During the solidification process, harmful trans-fatty acids are created which are carcinogenic and mutagenic.

Margarine and similar hydrogenated or processed polyunsaturated oils are potentially more detrimental to your health than any saturated fat, as is explained elsewhere on this site.

What would you rather have: a real, natural food with an abundance of healthful qualities or a lump of processed and deodorized slop?